The news of John Brown's attempted raid on a federal arsenal and subsequent execution in Charlestown, Virginia, stirred passionate reactions throughout the country and across the political spectrum. In this activity, students can examine a range of reactions to Brown and his methods and, in the process, explore more general questions about the role of violence in movements for social change. They will begin by analyzing a classic 1857 quotation from Frederick Douglass on the nature of social change. Then, in a persuasive essay, they will evaluate Douglass's statement in light of debates that occurred two years later over John Brown and his methods at Harpers Ferry.

Historical ContextWhen John Brown and a small band of armed men
attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859,
they intended to seize the weapons there and free all slaves in the
vicinity. The plan failed, however, and Brown and his associates were
captured, tried, and finally hanged for treason on December 2, 1859.
This was not John Brown's first use of violent means to oppose slavery.
Brown was known to some as "Osawatomie" or "Pottawatomie" Brown because
in 1856 he led a deadly attack on a small proslavery settlement near
Osawatomie Creek (alternately known as Pottwatomie Creek) in the Kansas
territory, where the expansion of slavery was fiercely contested during
the 1850s.

The news of Brown's attempted raid and subsequent execution in Charlestown,
Virginia, stirred passionate reactions throughout the country and
across the political spectrum. Especially in the Souththough
not only theremany were clear and unequivocal in their denunciations
of Brown, his cause, and his methods. (see, for example, editorials
from the Raleigh,
North Carolina, Register and the Springfield,
Illinois, State Register ). But the raid on Harpers Ferry
also revealed cleavages among northerners and others who shared a
basic objection to slavery yet disagreed on the proper means of opposing
it.

In this activity, which may be adpated to take
anywhere from 2-5 class periods, students will examine a range of
reactions to Brown and his methods and, in the process, explore more
general questions about the role of violence in movements for social
change. They will begin this exploration by analyzing a classic 1857
quotation from Frederick Douglass on the nature of social change.
Then, in a persuasive essay, they will evaluate Douglass's statement
in light of debates that occurred two years later over John Brown
and his methods at Harpers Ferry.

Step 1: Reading and Interpreting a Quotation
Divide the class into pairs. Have students
read the following quotation with each other, discuss it, and rewrite
it in their own words:

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
. . .The struggle may be a moral one or it may be a physical one, or
it may both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes
nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will. Find out
just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact
amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and
these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows,
or with both. ..

(If they wish students to collaborate and share
ideas about the documents, teachers may decide to handle this step
in "jigsaw" fashion as follows: 1) break students into four groups,
each of which reads, discusses, and becomes "expert" on one document
2) reassemble groups to contain "experts" on all four documents. In
those groups, students then read the rest of the documents and help
facilitate discussion of the document on which they initially focused.)

Step 3: Plan an EssayDivide students into two groups; one group
will plan and write essays agreeing with the Douglass quotation, the
other group will plan and write essays disagreeing with the Douglass
quotation.

Have students diagram or outline an essay in
which they:
1. explain their interpretation of the Douglass quotation;
2. make a thesis statement of agreement or disagreement with Douglass;
3. support their thesis statement with relevant facts, examples, and
details relating to the case study of John Brown and Harpers Ferry;
4. use arguments and evidence from at least two of the primary documents
they have read in Step Two.

Step 4 (Assessment): Write the EssayHave students write the essay as a homework
assignment.

Step 5: Class Discussion

Students discuss with their classmates the
different positions they took. This might be handled as an informal
discussion or a more structured debate in which students read from
their essays.

FOLLOW-UP/EXTENSION:Deepen the exploration of the Douglass quotation
by analyzing and comparing the following documents:
1. A longer excerpt from Douglass's
1857 speech on West India emancipation
2. An overview
of Brown's raid, including Douglass's thoughts about it
3. Excerpt from Douglass's
1881 speech lauding Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry